5 times longer in coming than Brunel took making the real thing!

[user=434]John Dew[/user] wrote:

[user=380][/user]the posh scousers  living in the new houses there by calling it the"Barracks Estate" ……………..all a long time ago

Are not the words 'posh' and 'scousers' mutually exclusive?


[Dons tin hat and runs away from the scallies…]


Stirring Doofer

In the very old days it was Manchester Men and Liverpool Gentlemen

You can have your thread back shortly Mal:pedal

…and all the old jokes come to mind:

"What do you call a scouser in a detached house?"  A burglar.

"What do you call a scouser in a suit?"  The accused.
  There were some more, but my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.


Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
  

Having seen Aussietrains header picture nomination, I'd love to see an update on the layout Mal.

Well, my ghast is absolutely flabbered to find one of my old photos nominated for header pic., but I'm also amazed to see that it's October since I last updated this thread.  First, excuses - our beautiful Cindy lost her 3-month battle with the big 'C' just before Christmas (see earlier in the thread). I've loved all my dogs but never been so attached to one as that big slobbery hairball & she left a huge hole & I didn't really feel up to much.  Then our little Shepherd Jan (the other one in the photo) was diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the spine that is putting pressure on her windpipe & making it hard for her to swallow or breathe properly.  So not much luck on the canine front.  Then I got involved in a business deal with a guy who's turned out to be a conman, fraudster & inveterate liar that cost me R100, 000 (about £10, 000) - a tidy sum in the UK but a fortune over here where a policeman's salary is about R8, 000 a month.  I think I might recover about 50% but as you can imagine it's not left much time for the railway!

So excuses over, what's been happening?  Well, all baseboards just about finished & track laying started at Ottersford - first trains have run on the sweeping approach to the station:







No points have been laid yet as I've been following Perry's 'Plank Road' thread with avid interest & decided to go the 'Hex Frog Juicer' road.  I've ordered one so will do the approach roads as soon as it arrives.  Meanwhile, the power BUS & accessories BUS has been installed & I've been improving my soldering.

What have I learnt?  The importance of flux!  I always used 'multicore' solder & always had problems getting the solder to flow.  I bought some flux & can't believe the difference it makes.  Probably b. obvious to most of you guys, but my learning curve is ever steeper!

Easewood baseboards were cleared & new legs fitted to raise the level, as the branch will now climb & cross the mainline & give me a run of about 6m from Ottersford to Easewood.



Everything seems to take so long!  Most of this week has been working on my old Mainline Dean Goods. I say old because I bought it new goodness knows when & it's been in the box since.  It's one of those horrible tender drives, but I've fitted a TCS chip & done some detailing & it doesn't look too bad, but is very noisy:


As a break from track & baseboards, I've been trying some scratch building.  The Station Master's house has appeared in Station Road:



I think in this case Sol's 3' rule should be adjusted to 30' & Pendon has nothing to worry about!  What have I learnt?  First, you can't change your knife blade too often - look at the raggedy edge round the windows!  2nd - if you're not 100% happy with something, rather scrap it then & start again rather than think it won't notice.  Sandra says I'm a sad muppet & the damn railway won't be finished in another 50 years - fact is, I know it's not right & really that's all that matters.  I'm building another cottage next door that's a bit of an improvement.  If anyone's interested, the drainpipe is fuse wire with brackets a la Allan Downes  (rolled strips of paper). The brass door knob is a pin head.  First attempt at back scen painting also!  Need to improve quickly as we have 18 meters of back scene to go!

Easewood engine shed has had a re-paint & acquired a coaling stage - still to be bedded in & detailed:




So that's about it for now.  Not much to show for 5 months!

What is the main thing I have learnt?  Don't do anything before looking in the Forum index!!  If i'd done that, I'd have made holes in the baseboard trusses to take wires, I wouldn't have raggedy edges on my windows, I'd have appreciated the importance of flux much sooner & so on.  Must say at this point that this Forum has been an absolute brick for me, as inspiration as well as support.  There is always someone willing to help & give advice, & as Billy No Mates here in S.A. it's good to be able to communicate with people with a common interest in our great & diverse hobby.  So my thanks to you all :doublethumb

Mal

Mal

Great to have an update, and I'm sorry to hear of trauma you've gone through with your beloved dogs and being taken for a ride by the con artist.

Maybe it doesn't seem much to you but as you seem to work on your layout at about the same speed as I do on mine then I think it's good progress  

Nice interpretation of the Wills coal stage kit :thumbs

Welcome back Mal,
                         You've certainly had a rough ride of it lately mate.nice to see you back in modelling harness again.The layouts' coming on a treat.

Cheers,John.B.

 A real shame about your pets and the low life who took your cash, but good to have you back here again
know what you mean about the index,one hell of a reference source
lol::cool:

Yes, we had a black Labrador bitch, Jess, who became just another member of the family and would not be left out of anything, and when she went with old age (and over easting) it was a great loss to us all. So I know how you feel.

And as to Ottersford it's coming on well, and appreciate the update.

Well, as usual I've just put up about 6 pics & some text - kept pressing 'preview' to make sure everything OK, then after last insertion & text, pressed 'preview' & everything gone - just [img">] showing & nothing else. A real bummer & a waste of half an hour!

So I'll try again - who needs sleep anyway!

I've had a bit of a splurge last few days.  As Easewood had been cleared to fit the new legs & is now stabilised, I took the opportunity to replace & realign some sections of track & improve some connections (Easewood was originally DC but I converted to DCC so needed some extra feeds & breaks). Now everything is running reasonably smoothly.

Easewood has now acquired some seating, lamps & a much needed water crane:








The coal stage has been bedded in - now just needs some buckets & spades!




I bought some 'Chinese' trees on EBay - £15 for 50 inc postage from tiddly land.  They are a bit gaudy but with a bit of teasing with tweasers they don't look too bad a save a lot of time:






Old Jim the Porter is very proud of his Begonias - he's just a bit busy with churns at the moment for gardening:




I also bought a 'static stick' off EBay.  Had a problem with the mains adaptor - went pop as soon as I used it, but the guy gave great service & sourced a better one - cost him $25 just to ship the replacement adaptor!  Haven't had a chance to use it yet - I'm waiting for some 'static grass'.  The guys name is Scooter - would recommend as he really cares about his customers.




That's all for now folks.  Pip Pip.

Mal

Mal, the best way is to put the photos into the gallery first, then select as required when creating a thread/post.

Already do that Sol!  Put them in the gallery first, even before I open new reply window.  As I say, I've always had this problem, which is why I keep going to 'preview' after each insertion.  Never had a complete deletion before after adding six or so pics, text & everything! I'm using XP Pro regularly updated with Firefox & PC just been upgraded to Pentium 2.7 Dual Core with 3 Gig RAM so I don't think the problem is my end.

Try this, Mal:-     Just do a dummy post, it can be deleted afterwards.   Type in some text.

Go to the next line and upload one photo via "Upload new photo for insertion."

When the photo uploads, you should see it in your Gallery.  Click on the photo to insert it into the text.

Hit enter.

Type in some more text.

Go to Preview.

Scroll back down to Send.

Hit Send.

Let us know where it goes astray.

Hi Max - it doesn't happen every time - just a lot of the time!  I now go to 'preview' 1st because I was sick of sending only to find an empty post come up! At least if it's on 'preview' I can correct it first. So it happens when I press 'send' or 'preview' but not every time! Don't you just love intermittent problems? Mal

Mal, I enjoyed those recent shots of your layout. Nice and fresh. Well done.

Took the words out of my mouth. Easewood is looking great Mal and I do like the way you detailed the Dean Goods…….one the quintessential GWR locos

Regards

[user=380]Kaiser[/user] wrote:

Hi Max - it doesn't happen every time - just a lot of the time!  I now go to 'preview' 1st because I was sick of sending only to find an empty post come up! At least if it's on 'preview' I can correct it first. So it happens when I press 'send' or 'preview' but not every time! Don't you just love intermittent problems? Mal

Yes  yes yes………this will happen with this software if, having chosen 'Upload new photo for insertion' you don't actually upload something, perhaps you change your mind which picture to upload, or you can't remember if it's JPEG 1027 or JPEg 1028 you want.

You can go on gaily typing away, adding subsequent pictures and words, press 'Send' and all you have is a couple of words, a space and "img!.

So, golden rule, once you have selected 'Upload new photo for insertion' upload anything, you can always click on it and delete it in the final post if you have to.

Good Luck!


Doug


Edited to say 'Tell Jim it might be the limestone rocks around his begonias that if doing them harm, I think they like a ph neutral or slightly acid soil………..'

I'm enjoying this thread!

D

Progress at Ottersford continues at a pace that makes watching paint dry a high activity pursuit.  However, with a lot of help from Perry the first six main line points on the Southern approach to the station have been laid & wired using a 'Hex Frog Juicer'.  (If you don't know what this is, look at Perry's excellent 'Plank Road' thread.)  This has made the PL-13 switches I bought unnecessary for polarity switching, so I've decided to use them for LED route indicators.  On Perry's advice, this has meant the installation of another BUS wire so that the LEDs are independent of the point circuit using a Capacitor Discharge Unit.

This is the wiring diagram that Perry prepared for me - the fifth BUS wire runs from the CDU & eventually to all the PL-10s.



I'm sure whoever came up with the idea of DCC had shares in a wire making company - I can't believe how much wire I've used - & another 24  points to go!

This is work so far:







This is the HFJ in place - works a treat with super slow, smooth running through all the switches.



I'm trying to have a min. 5' radius to get a smooth flow with the large radius points, exception being the line at the top left in the second pic that runs down to the dock with a 4' radius.

At least all the baseboards are now complete with the finishing of the dropped section for the dock extension - just need to do the link between the old Easewood boards & the rest of the world.  Oh, & two control panels to build! Oh, and the backboards & front boards! Doh!

Not much to show for a couple of weeks.  What have I learnt?  You will ALWAYS bang your head when soldering under the baseboards.  The tool you need will ALWAYS be out of reach on the other side.  If a wire or a lead can get caught on any protuberance no matter how far away or tucked away, it ALWAYS will.  Trying to fit under baseboard point motors is a nightmare unless you are a two headed octopus.

That's all for now folks.  Thanks again to Perry for his patience & help.

Mal

:hiMal, Great to see someone else in the endurance phase of building a railway.

Hex frog juicers and such and miles of wiring 2-wire DCC :roll:.

Its really coming together though Mal :thumbsand you posted some great photo,s of some of your scenic work as well in your railway thread. :oops: I am Catching up.

Good luck with the rest of the points and wireing and I do hope things are on the up and up for you and your good lady.

regards,

Derek

Cheers Derek - I've been following your thread with interest as we seem to be at similar stages (the 'endurance stage' - very well put!) - there is also going to be an LNWR influence at Ottersford & I used to live next to the old L & Y Liverpool to Southport line.  The tracks were taken up in the late 50s & many an hour of my youth was spent walking the old track bed & exploring the disused & derelict signal boxes & station buildings.  The old L & Y terminal in Southport became a bus station until redevelopment in the 80s.

On the con-man front, the guy has been arrested & refused bail as it transpires he's done time for fraud before.  I've managed to recover my BMW that he was using, albeit with R50,000 worth of damage, but at least when it's repaired & sold I should be able to recover something.

Anyway, it's control panel building day as I've run out of wire!

Cheers for now.

Mal